Anger at God Is Good for Everybody

Anger at God is nothing new. In the Hebrew Bible it goes back at least as far as Abraham, who, according to Genesis 18:23, was angry at God for God's readiness to destroy the innocent people of Sodom along with those who were guilty. One could also argue that it goes back even further, to the story of Cain found in Genesis 4:5. But however far back the notion of getting angry at God can be traced, it is also the topic of a newly released study by Case Western Reserve University psychologist, Julie Exline.

Among the most interesting findings in Exline's study are the place of anger at God in the lives of self-declared atheists, and also the compatibility of simultaneous anger and positive feelings about God. I mention positive feelings and not faith because, by definition, if one is angry at God, one clearly has faith in the existence of God. Were that not the case, at whom is one angry? That returns us to the first finding about non-believers and their anger at God.